Electric cord



March 16, 1948. e. E. GUSTAFSON ELECTRIC CORD Filed June 5; 1944 FIG.

TRANSPARENT MATERIAL FIG.2

COPPER COLORE CONDUCTOR I NVENTOR GILBERT E. GUSTAFSON HIS ATTORNEYPatented Mar. 16, 1948 ELECTRIC CORD Gllbert'E. Gustai'son, RiverForest, Ill., asslgnor to Zenith Radio Corporation, a. corporation ofIllinois Application June 5, 1944, Serial No. 538,731

- 4 Claims. 1

This invention relates to electrical cords such as are particularlyuseful in electrical apparatus such as wearable hearing aids or. thelike,

In such portable or wearable electrical apparatus as hearing aids, it isdesirable that electrical cords connecting various parts of theapparatus, for example, the cord extending between the amplifier caseand earpiece be of pleasing and inconspicuous appearance. Many personswhose hearing is impaired and who should wear a hearing aid decline todo so because, among other reasons, or the unsightly appearance of thecord extending from the amplifier case to the receiver and because of afeeling that such cord when contrasted to the color of their skin makesthem conspicuous.

it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide animproved wearable electrical cord having a pleasing appearance and onewhich tends to make the wearer thereof feel less conspicuous because ofits presence.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an electrical cordhaving a white-pinkish color which blends in well with the color of theskin of persons of the white or Caucasian race.

A further object of this present invention is to provide an improvedelectrical cord of a color resembling that of flesh color, of simpleinexpen sive construction and of a minimum number of component parts.

The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel areset forth with particularity in the appended claims. This inventionitself, both as to its organization and manner of operation, togetherwith further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood byreference to the following description taken in connection with theaccompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 shows an elevational view or an end of an electrical cordembodying the present invention;

Fig, 2 shows a sectional view taken substantially on line 2-2 of Fig. 1;and

Fig. 3 shows a sectional view taken substantially on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

The electrical cord I0, of white-pinkish color resembling the color ofthe skin of persons of the white or Caucasian race, comprises copperconductors II and I2 formed respectively on strands l3 and ll of rayon,silk or other similar material for stiffness of assembly. The conductorsI2 are covered with nontransparent rayon or silk l5 of white color andconductors II are bare. Conductors II and I! lie parallel and areencased in a tube of flexible transparent material l6 preferably of atransparent plastic such as that bearing the trade name Vinylite,

The conductors l l and it, which are preferably of copper or coppercolor, and which may, for example, extend between the amplifier case andearpiece or bone conductor, or between batteries and amplifier case inhearing aid apparatus, need only be of small current capacity. In thepreferred embodiment shown, conductors ii and i2 comprise, respectively;pairs of conductors ii, iii and it), til, each having a rectangularcross section and being wound in side-by-sicle relationship on therespective strands l3 and it, as shown in Fig. 3. Such conductors ll, itand it, 26 of small cross section are wound respectively on strands andi or" some flexible material such as rayon, to provide flexibility andfreedom from breakage in the copper conductors and also to make it easyto. wind the conductors ii and ill on the strands l3 and M. It isunderstood, however, th'at solid or braided conductors may be moulded inthe transparent casing it without ini tially mounting them on suchstrands l3 and id, but an advantage resides in winding at least a pairof conductors in side-by-side relationship to form the compositeconductor 5 l in Fig. l in that the spacing, however small, betweenadjacent edges of conductors ll and 88 causes desirable discontinuitiesin the light reflected from the conductor ii toproduce the desiredappearance wh'ile providing a high degree of flexibility.

It is an important feature of the present invention to cover only one ofsuch conductors ii and i2 with a material I 5 with a whitish color suchas white rayon and to embed 0r mould the white covered conductor and thebare copper conductor 8 l in side-by-side relationship withintransparent material l6 such as a plastic, preferably "Vinylite.

Plastics, such as Vinylite, are moulded around thetwo parallel extendingconductors by extrusion.

The bare conductor ii and covered conductor ii are preferably moulded asshown in Fig. 1 in parallel extending relationship without twist withrespect to casing IS. A similar effect to that produced by thoseparallel extending conductors may be achieved by twisting the conductorsH and I2 prior to moulding them in the plastic materlal.

It is noted that transparent plastics such as Vinylite have a refractiveindex in the range of 1.5 to 1.6 and inasmuch as the cross section ofthe cord is oval shaped as shown in Figure 2 U68] purposes in use th'eembedded copper conductor large extent by refracted light rays. Suchbeing the case, the copper conductor l3 for all pracis visible atsubstantially all angles when viewed by an observer.

This is particularly true where the transparent plastic is polymerizedresins o! the vinyl type known as Vinylite.

While the particular embodiments of the present invention have beenshown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art thatchanges and modifications maybe made without departing from thisinvention in its broader aspects, and, therefore, the aim in theappended claims is to cover all such changes and modifications as fallwithin the true spirit and scope of this invention.

I claim:

1. A flesh-colored cord for people of the white race comprising, incombination, a pairof conductors encased in a transparent plasticmaterial, one of said conductors being of copper color and the otherconductor being covered with whitish material whereby the assembled cordhas a color resembling flesh color.

2. An electric cord comprising a copper-colored conductor, a secondconductor extending parallel with said copper-colored conductor, awhitish-colored covering over said second conductor, and a transparentsheath over both said conductors and said cover.

3. An electric cord comprising a flexible copper-colored conductor, aflexible whitish-colored is: viewed a '4 conductor lying alongside saidcopper-colored conductor, and a transparent sheath over both saidconductors. j

4. A flesh-colored cord for people or the white race comprising, incombination, a pair of conductors at least one or which comprises a pairof copper-colored conductors wound over a core in side-by-siderelationship to produce discontinuities in light reflected from said oneconductor, a whitish nontransparent covering for the other conductor,and a transparent material encasing said pair of conductors.

GILBERT E. GUSTAFSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are or record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS N. Y, C., entitled How to Use Small ButtonEarpiece with the New Soft Rubber Eartip; form A5; copyri hted 1931.

